Journalists in Egypt arrested and attacked

By
David Nakamura

A plainclothes policeman (L) runs to attack a foreign journalist as others beat a protester on Saturday. (Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)

Updated 9:38 p.m.

A day after journalists were beaten by pro-government supporters in Cairo, at least two dozen reporters, including two Washington Post staff members, were detained according to multiple witnesses. Based on reports from witnesses, they were in the custody of the military police in Cairo as of 3 p.m. EET (8 a.m. EST). Early reports that they were in the custody of the Interior Ministry were incorrect.

Leila Fadel, the Post's Cairo bureau chief; Linda Davidson, a staff photographer; Sufian Taha, their translator and a longtime Washington Post employee; and Mansour el-Sayed Mohammed, their Egyptian driver, were among those who were detained, said Douglas Jehl, the Post's foreign editor. All were later released, first Fadel and Davidson on Thursday evening, then Taha and Mohammed on Friday morning (Thursday night in Washington).

Three Al Jazeera journalists also have been detained and another is reported missing, according to a statement from the news network. Meantime, the Associated Press reported that its correspondent saw "eight foreign journalists detained by the military near the prime minister's office, not far from Tahrir Square."

"All three of our staff should be immediately released," Al Jazeera said. "We are concerned for their safety and welfare. We are taking every measure as a priority to obtain their release."

Al Jazeera also reported Thursday that a Greek journalist had been stabbed in the leg in the chaos.

The Post's Jehl said of the newspaper's correspondents: "We understand that they are safe but in custody, and we have made urgent protests to Egyptian authorities in Cairo and Washington. We've advised the State Department, as well."

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley, asked whether the office has protested the detention of journalists to the Egyptian government, said in an email: "We have expressed our grave concerns with government officials in the Foreign Ministry and the Embassy here in Washington. We are in touch with the military as well."

Since the protests broke out in Tahrir Square 10 days ago, journalists have rushed to the scene to document the chaos, but they have been hampered by a lack of resources - the government shut down Internet access for several days - and by intimidation. Anti-government protesters have complained that the government is trying to whitewash the demonstrations, while some government supporters have said reporters need to be rounded up and detained for their own safety.

The Committee to Protect Journalists has received nearly 50 reports Thursday of journalists being detained or beaten, said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, program coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa. He said reporters from various countries, including a BBC television correspondent and reporters from Spain, Sweden and Italy, are among those who have been rounded up or assaulted. He said there was a report of "thugs" breaking into a Hilton hotel -- where many journalists were staying -- to round up reporters.

"Things are about as out-of-control as they can get," Abdel Dayem said. The number of reporters who have been detained or beaten is "definitely in the dozens. Egypt TV is accusing a number of people, basically all foreigners on the street, to be Israeli spies. So you can do the math. Dozens have been arrested, beaten on the street, their equiptment confiscated and broken and their credentials burned."

Abdel Dayem said he does not recall a similarly bleak situation for reporters in recent years. According to CPJ's Web site, four journalists have been killed around the world in 2011 and 145 are currently in prison, not counting Egypt. In a report on its Web site Thursday, the CPJ rounded up the incidents in Egypt it has compiled so far.

NBC correspondent Richard Engel, one of the most high-profile journalists on the scene, said Thursday on Twitter: "Journalists, now targets, disliked by Mubarak supporters, forced to play cat-mouse game, broadcasting, moving, staying low profile."

In addition to journalists, human rights workers also were being rounded up, including Daniel Williams, a researcher for Human Rights Watch. The organization said that its law center in Cairo was raided by police and military personnel and several monitors were interrogated before being driven off to an undisclosed location.

Williams, a former journalist who worked for the Washington Post and several other publications, recently wrote about the protests in Tunisia for Global Post, an online foreign news publication.

"Egyptian authorities should immediately and safely release our colleague and the other human rights monitors detained today," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "The authorities should immediately halt the arrest and harassment of independent witnesses to the orchestrated attacks on peaceful demonstrators in Egypt."

Would love to see Keith Olberman getting the sh@@ out of him, along with the rest of the liberal media.
Posted by: LibsRidiots
***************************
And your post, sir, exemplifies perfectly the mindless, brutish, mob mentality of your "non-liberal" affiliation.

Would love to see Keith Olberman getting the sh@@ out of him, along with the rest of the liberal media.
Posted by: LibsRidiots
_______________________________________
My oh my, that's very Christian of you.

Enough with the partisan crap...We're all Americans right? And we all want democracy.
How about we ALL support our President and as well as demand that we send in some help for our reporters AND the pro-democracy demonstrators.
Ignore the petty comments by the criminally ignorant and lets mobilize the BEST intentions we can muster for this situation- including our comments here.

Would love to see Keith Olberman getting the sh@@ out of him, along with the rest of the liberal media.

Posted by: LibsRidiots | February 3, 2011 12:37 PM

----

Funny, when we were invading Iraq all you conservatives were crowing about freedom and justice, but now you're on the side of Mubarak's thugs ... perhaps you think the only appropriate way for an Arab country to win democracy is if the United States is "bestowing" it at the point of a gun?

To all of you using this as an excuse to push your party's views: Shut up. These are real people doing their honest jobs getting arrested in a part of the world that is under chaos. Think rationally for once and SHUT UP WITH THE STUPID "liberal media" or "conservative brainwash" crap.

Those who would advocate the beating/arrest or death of journalists who are courageous enough to enter a dangerous situation to show the world what's happening deserve the rage and frustration their ignorance condemns them to.

From Clinton's initial comments of being good friends with Mubarak and the Administration's support of the dictator, to this. It's a good thing Obama realized his major gaff and after a week has come around to democracy, as Bush called for in the Middle Esat.

Those who would advocate the beating/arrest or death of journalists who are courageous enough to enter a dangerous situation to show the world what's happening deserve the rage and frustration their ignorance condemns them to.
Posted by: hcaulfield
*********************
+1

It's not ALL their fault as their "news" station is out foxing their limited capacity for reason.
In fact todays USA McDay is replete with out right propaganda and outright lies..portraying Mubaraks paid goons (like the one in striped shirt above) as the loyal opposition. "pulled down from their camels and beaten." Nothing about how they all charged in in UNISON attacking the peaceful protest for democray.
Note to FOX viewers: Please, for the sake of reason and mutual understanding at the very least atch Richard Engel this evening on MSNBC or even Brian Williams. Rachel Maddow dedicated her whole show to live pictures and reports from Engel and Williams and will again tonight.

You folks must allow for the POSSIBILITY that you may be victims of propaganda for the interests of a very very few powerful people.

The Tea Party's fascist roots are showing. Egypt is following the American 1776 playbook, but the right-wingers just love it when those fact-spewing members of the news media get their skulls cracked.
Instead of becoming informed abut reality, the Tea Party tunes into Glenn Beck's insane ramblings to get their opinions downloaded courtesy of the OPEC/China-financed Fox News Corp.
And they call themselves American patriots. Give me a break!

wishing harm to a journalist is an awfufl thing to say as was done in this post which I reported as abuse:
"Would love to see Keith Olberman getting the sh@@ out of him, along with the rest of the liberal media.

Posted by: LibsRidiots | February 3, 2011 12:37 PM | Report abuse"

Right now journalists are in harms way and this is not the time to earn Becks paycheck for him.

Those who would advocate the beating/arrest or death of journalists who are courageous enough to enter a dangerous situation to show the world what's happening deserve the rage and frustration their ignorance condemns them to.

_______________________________________________________

That's just it. Most journalists today do not show "what's happening." They show their version of what they think is happening.

Some of you phony, pompous media types with an overblown sense of self-importance are getting your just rewards. Who the hell appointed you to think you have carte-blanche, to anything you deem important
? Guess what. YOU DON'T. Why not send my favorite, a legend in her own mind, Couric the shrew to Egypt to conduct interviews with the "peaceful" Muslims?

The matters in Egypt are for the Egyptian people to deal with, not matters for a bunch of pseudo journalistic hacks to further instigate.

Journalist think they are divined with God like rights to do as they please. They should execute the ones in custody to send the losers of the media press a clear message...You might be Gods, but you are not of the immortal kind.

As for the likes of Amnesty International, those who have been behind more civil rights abuses than the Klan and Nazi Germany combined, just find a deep dark hole and do the world a big favor and throw them all into it to rot.

Leave the matters of Egypt to its people, just get out and stay out. Go home and clean up your own filthy backyards, before you start trying to tell others how to clean up their own.

It is shocking to see.Truly the protesters are unfamilar with the american press dislike for Israel.The Democratic party must be in heaven at the possibility of losing the only peace deal.It will be interesting to see if any changes in tone rise up from the liberal jewish american public now that the worm has turned against Israel the jewish state,aka war mongers as per liberals...

Since the riots in Egypt broke out last week, Barack Obama has attempted to hit the snooze button on his 3 a.m. phone call. After much uncertainty about the American position, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak announced today he will step down as president-for-life at the end of his term this September.

There is no word on whether this will satisfy the majority of rioters in his country, nor what government may follow him, but apparently it did not satisfy Obama.

Shortly after the announcement, Obama declared, “orderly transition…must begin now.” As to what government will follow, a member of the Obama administration has allegedly met with a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, the radical fundamentalist organization that incubated the leadership of al-Qaeda.

The Brotherhood is uniquely positioned to take advantage of these region-wide uprisings. The good news is this fate could be prevented; the bad news is there is no evidence Barack Obama has any idea how to bring this about.

Yes. I'm sure journalists have been attacked and arrested. So have lawyers, doctors, and letter carriers. What's your point? Why in God's name should we care more about Journalists than any other occupation?

I have followed the events in Egypt closely, both reading and viewing in pursuit of information. Having done extensive study of the Middle East at one point in my life, I approach this with some background and understanding. Nothing that I have read or heard from folks in Egypt or people such as Jim Baker, Chief of Staff for President Ronald Reagan, has supported the idea that there is an easy or facile solution to this dilemma. We have competing goals in this and similar situations: strategic interests and national values. The administration through various spokespeople has walked a narrow line between the two in its comments. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, for instance, has been in contact with his counterpart in the Egyptian military. Even Republicans are standing with the Obama administration in this matter. But folks who blog somehow have a better answer. Beats me how such smart people are not in a position to be part of the solution rather than sitting on the outside hurling verbal stones.

These people are beating up journalists because they're American. They make no distinction between conservative or liberal journalists, nor do they care. There's news today that Fox News reporter Greg Palkot was beaten within an inch of his life. My thoughts and prayers are with him and his family.

Leave it to RWNJ media like Fox & Limbaugh, to whip up fears of extremist Islam takeovers ala the Taliban.

The Egypt uprising is hardly about that. Like the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, Egyptians have seen the modern world with it's freedoms and prosperity, and they want in. These rebellions are positive for global progress, not something to be afraid of.

Man, take the comments for what they are. Gallows humor. I never take these kinds of comments seriously. I don’t consider Olberman or Beck journalists. They are entertainers Anderson Cooper is one of the few talking heads who is actually willing to put himself in risky spots and I admire that. Hopefully the government will tell the Egyptians in no uncertain terms that this action is unacceptable and it must end immediately or there wil be severe repercussions. I see no difference between what is going on now and Hussein violently and brutally putting down the Shia uprising what 18 years ago.

To be blunt, most journalists come to this story with the same perspective, they are hoping to overthrow the government and are writing accordingly. Perhaps their papers and networks would issue ritual denials of that, but it is true. The obvious response from government supporters is to stop them. I'm sorry if that shocks you, but people are playing for keeps out there, and a reporter gets no special shield. Frankly, given television, a reporter stopped or killed could be worth thousands on the street.

Leave it to RWNJ media like Fox & Limbaugh, to whip up fears of extremist Islam takeovers ala the Taliban.

The Egypt uprising is hardly about that. Like the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, Egyptians have seen the modern world with it's freedoms and prosperity, and they want in. These rebellions are positive for global progress, not something to be afraid of.

- Balkingpoints / www

Posted by: RField7

_______________________________________________

I think you're only fooling yourself if you don't think there's a danger of a radical Muslim government taking over Egypt after all of this. I think that's legitimate concern.

The reporters being attacked are probably not reporting the news. They tend not to know what the news is. In the US they only report their biased opinions and pass it off as news. They are probably reporting their opinions about what is going on in Egypt, trying to call it the news, and as a result, are not as welcome in Egypt as they are here.

Early on, Richard Engle abandoned one of the old rules of journalism- don't become part of the story. His reports were obviously sympathetic to the anti-Mubarak protesters, up to the point of being shown amidst a cheering, protesting crowd on top of an abandoned police armored car ala Boris Yeltsin.

Did he think the authorities didn't see or would ignore that report? What happened to "just the facts"?

In the long run, being American in Egypt right now is probably not good for anyone's health.

The moral relativists just can't stand the notion that there is a rot at the core of Islamic culture. Well, here's yet another example. You want to find a barbaric, anti-intellectual, xenophibic, misogynist religious zealot? Start looking in an Arab capital.

Wow! Equal opportunity to beat up journalists of any political persuasion from the N.Y. Times to Fox News. And that happens when foreign journalists take sides by calling one group of demonstrators thugs and brutes and the others freedom seeking. Journalists must remember that people of any nation have pride in their affairs and pejorative comments on their doings may indeed lead to physical confrontations.

Hey libs, Egypt isn't the U.S., if Christianne Amanpour is dumb enough to stick her nose where it doesn't belong, she deserves whatever happens to her. It seems that only "highly-educated" libs don't understand the real world, and consistently ignore the lessons of history. The world is a back alley and all the wishful thinking and academic postulating will not transform it into Walden Pond, which, btw didn't work out either.

michaelhunt277 sez: "Hey libs, Egypt isn't the U.S., if Christianne Amanpour is dumb enough to stick her nose where it doesn't belong, she deserves whatever happens to her. It seems that only "highly-educated" libs don't understand the real world, and consistently ignore the lessons of history. The world is a back alley and all the wishful thinking and academic postulating will not transform it into Walden Pond, which, btw didn't work out either."

It's a shame that this poor stunted character's parents didn't care enough about him to drown him at birth, thereby sparing him the agony of a lifetime of being a jerkwad.

The matters in Egypt are for the Egyptian people to deal with, not matters for a bunch of pseudo journalistic hacks to further instigate.

Journalist think they are divined with God like rights to do as they please. They should execute the ones in custody to send the losers of the media press a clear message...You might be Gods, but you are not of the immortal kind.

As for the likes of Amnesty International, those who have been behind more civil rights abuses than the Klan and Nazi Germany combined, just find a deep dark hole and do the world a big favor and throw them all into it to rot.

Leave the matters of Egypt to its people, just get out and stay out. Go home and clean up your own filthy backyards, before you start trying to tell others how to clean up their own.

Posted by: africanwarrior11 | February 3, 2011 2:29 PM

Thank you Africanwarrior11, for proving definitively that the internet is back online in Egypt. Now, imshii, ya himar!

Regardless their political bent, those Americans being assaulted need to have someone in THIS government and with authority step up and announce that this behavior is unacceptable, must stop, and that there WILL be consequences!

I'm somehow always stunned by the degree of ignorance from those on the "right". You folks are kind of like mad dogs running amok in the country and on message boards like this.
Scrawling your sick and degenerative "opinions" like monkeys writing on their cages with their own poop.

I'm a pacifist, in theory and practice- but must say..reading some of your utterly ignorant..and frankly sadistic and evil posts-
makes me want to kick your fat bloated arses.
But that would be sinking to your level of course and now just writing this I've joined you in the filth and muck..that I suppose is your lives.
But they are like mad dogs no? What can we do with this preposterous level of stupidity?
The Bushes actually seem like gentlemen compared with this new lot. Pirates and scoundrels yes, but with a modicum of breeding.

America decided to bomb Iraq into democracy and thousands of innocent people died.
Some of you enjoy trashing jounalists a profession no democracy can survive without. Some of you soak up the propaganda from fox. Daniel Pearl had his head cut off, Glenn and Rush make millions saying nothing, zero, except trash talk that is music to the ears of people who do not know where to go to find out facts.
Mubarack is proud of fox the network of dictators.

APTN had their satellite dish agressively dismantled, leaving them and many other journalists who rely on their feed point no way to feed material.

ABC News international correspondent Christiane Amanpour said that on Wednesday her car was surrounded by men banging on the sides and windows, and a rock was thrown through the windshield, shattering glass on the occupants. They escaped without injury

And ABC Producer and Cameraman driving were carjacked at a checkpoint and driven to a compound where they were surrounded by men who threatened to behead them. They were able to convince the men to release them without any harm.

ABC/Bloomberg’s Lara Setrakian also attacked by protesters

CNN’s Anderson Cooper said he, a producer and camera operator were set upon by people who began punching them and trying to break their camera
Another CNN reporter, Hala Gorani, said she was shoved against a fence when demonstrators rode in on horses and camels, and feared she was going to get trampled

Fox Business Channel’s Ashley Webster reported that security officials burst into a room where he and a camera operator were observing the demonstration from a balcony. They forced the camera inside the room. He called the situation “very unnerving” and said via Twitter that he was trying to lay low

Fox News Channel foreign correspondent Greg Palkot and producer Olaf Wiig were hospitalized in Cairo after being attacked by protestors.

CBS News’ Katie Couric harassed by protesters
CBS newsman Mark Strassman said he and a camera operator were attacked as they attempted to get close to the rock-throwing and take pictures. The camera operator, who he would not name, was punched repeatedly and hit in the face with Mace.

CBS News’ Lara Logan reports she was marched back to her hotel at gunpoint when she and a crew were taking pictures of protests (link) Time Magainze reports that Lara Logan has been detained by Egyptian police.

Two New York Times journalists have been arrested. (A Times spokeswoman said that the two journalists were “detained by military police overnight in Cairo and are now free.”

Washington Post foreign editor Douglas Jehl wrote Thursday that witnesses say Leila Fadel, the paper’s Cairo bureau chief, and photographer Linda Davidson “were among two dozen journalists arrested this morning by Military Police.” Fadel and Davidson have since been released.

BBC’s Jerome Boehm also targeted by protesters

BBC also reported their correspondent Rupert Wingfield-Hayes’ car was forced off the road in Cairo “by a group of angry men.” He has detained by the men, who handed him off to secret police agents who handcuffed and blindfolded him and an unnamed colleague and took them to an interrogation room. They were released after three hours. /

I love it. Lets all just say it with that accompanying tag-line from now on. For example: "FOX..the network of Dictators reported today that Barrack Obama burned an American Flag to commemorate 'Flag Day'. More later...

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